68. That the word βότρυς is common for a bunch of grapes is known to every one; and Crates, in the second book of his Attic Dialect, uses the word σταφυλὴ, although it appears to be a word of Asiatic origin; saying that in some of the ancient hymns the word σταφυλὴ is used for βότρυς, as in the following line:—
Thick hanging with the dusky grapes (σταφυλῆσι) themselves.
GRAPES.
And that the word σταφυλὴ is used by Homer is known to every one. But Plato, in the eighth book of his Laws, uses both βότρυς and σταφυλὴ, where he says—"Whoever tastes wild fruit, whether it be grapes (βοτρύων) or figs, before the time of the vintage arrives, which falls at the time of the rising of Arcturus, whether it be on his own farm, or on any one else's land, shall be fined fifty sacred drachmas to be paid to Bacchus, if he plucked them off his own land; but a mina if he gather them on a neighbour's estate; but if he take them from any other place, two-thirds of a mina. But whoever chooses to gather the grapes (τὴν σταφυλὴν), which are now called the noble grapes, or the figs called the noble figs, if he gather them from his own trees, let him gather them as he pleases, and when he pleases; but if he gathers them from the trees of any one else without having obtained the leave of the owner, then, in accordance with the law which forbids any one to move what he has not placed, he shall be invariably punished." These are the words of the divine Plato; but I ask now what is this noble grape (γενναῖα), and this noble fig that he speaks of? And you may all consider this point while I am discussing the other dishes which are on the table. And Masurius said—
But let us not postpone this till to-morrow,
Still less till the day after.
When the philosopher says γενναῖα, he means εἰγενῆ, generous, as Archilochus also uses the word—
Come hither, you are generous (γενναῖος);
or, perhaps, he means ἐπιγεγενημένα; that is to say, grafted. For Aristotle speaks of grafted pears, and calls them ἑπεμβολάδες. And Demosthenes, in his speech in defence of Ctesiphon, has the sentence, "gathering figs, and grapes (βότρυς), and olives." And Xenophon, in his Œconomics, says, "that grapes (τὰς σταφυλὰς) are ripened by the sun." And our ancestors also have been acquainted with the practice of steeping grapes in wine. Accordingly Eubulus, in his Catacollomenos, says—
But take these grapes (βότρυς), and in neat wine pound them,